The New York Times has an answer.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
The New York Times came up with a clarification about calling singer Lata Mangeshkar “so-called playback singer” in an article about the controversy on Tanmay Bhat video mocking cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Mangeshkar.
On Wednesday, New York Times clarified that the term used to describe Mangeshkar was not meant to describe the singer, but only meant to explain the word playback to non-Indian readers.
“In the expletive-laced video, which was created on Snapchat, Mr. Bhat uses that app’s face-swap feature to impersonate Sachin Tendulkar, a hugely popular cricketer who retired in 2013, and Lata Mangeshkar, a so-called playback singer for Bollywood films whose career dates to the 1940s. Playback singer’s record vocals for song-and-dance numbers, to which actors and actresses lip-sync,” read the article.
The daily had faced severe flak from Indians and fans of Mangeshkar following the publication of the article.
NYT’s South Asia bureau chief Ellen Barry tweeted a clarification on the issue.
“A note on “so-called”: Used here for non-Indian readers unfamiliar w term “playback singer.” In no way a commentary,” he wrote.
Suhasini Raj, the co-writer of the article, also came up with a clarification by quoting the meaning of the word. “‘So-called: used to introduce a new word or phrase that is not yet known by many people’.”